Clyburn said that Cain's remark at last night's Republican debate -- referring to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as "Princess Nancy" -- was not only disrespectful, but ill-timed, given the recent sexual-harassment allegations against Cain.

"He ought to be very, very careful how he reacts to or treats women going forward, and that was a disrespectful comment about one of the outstanding women in our great country," Clyburn told NBC's Andrea Mitchell.

Clyburn went on to praise Pelosi’s work in Congress and dismissed Cain’s words as “unbecoming of a Southern gentleman”; Cain hails from Georgia.